Lucrece, third edition

The third edition of Lucrece was printed for John Harrison by his son, John Harrison III, in 1600.

Like the second and all subsequent editions, this third edition is imposed (type-set and printed) in octavo rather than in quarto, perhaps so readers could bind their copies with other short poetic pamphlets like Venus and Adonis. Indeed, this copy is bound with four related works in a contemporary limp vellum binding with the gilt initials ’G.O.’ on either side: parts of two editions of The Passionate Pilgrim combined to create a nearly complete version (11 unsigned leaves from the first edition (1599), and signatures B and D from the second edition, both printed in 1599); Thomas Middleton’s The Ghost of Lucrece (1600); and the fifth edition of Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis (1599).

Lucrece, first printed in 1594, would eventually reach an eighth edition before 1640, a number that equals Shakespeare's most popular play, Henry IV Part 1. Although Shakespeare is now known primarily as a playwright, in his own time he was equally revered as the author of Venus and Adonis and Lucrece, his two sensationally successful Ovidian narrative poems.

The copy shown above is part of the Folger Shakespeare Library collection. Two other copies of this edition are held at the Bodleian Library according to the English Short Title Catalogue. A variant edition, of which one copy survives at the Bodleian Library, reads “London.” on the title page, instead of “London,” as shown above. Farr suggests the “London.” version was printed from the “London,” edition.

To learn more about the plot and early printing history of Lucrece, please visit the Folger Shakespeare Librarys's Shakespeare's Works; to read a modernized edition of the poem, see the Folger Shakespeare edition.